This week’s featured link:
Delta Air Lines CEO on why he still flies in the back of the plane – Marketplace
Here’s a great 27m25s podcast where Kai Ryssdal from Marketplace interviews Delta CEO Ed Bastian. It’s a long, seemingly candid conversation that’s well worth a listen. I particularly like how fast Ed was to answer Kai’s 5-word-description challenge toward the end.
Two for the road:
On Location & Onboard: American Retires 20 MD-80s On One Historic Day – Airways Magazine
American is down to only 61 MD-80s now that it retired 20 in one day. Airways was there onboard one of the flights, and it’s a fun, nostalgic read.
This 1963 promo video for LAX is a wonderful homage to the Jet Age in Los Angeles – TimeOut Los Angeles
My dad actually sent me this link, and yes, it is some fantastic airplane porn. The footage from shortly after the terminals opened at LAX is just great.
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14 Comments on "3 Links I Love: Interviewing Ed Bastian, MD-80s Go Bye Bye, LAX in the 1960s"
I love old videos like that. Another one of my favorites is the animated video created by Eero Saarinen to demonstrate how great the “Mobile Lounge Docks” at Dulles would be—now they are despised by most travelers.
https://vimeo.com/4139559
Yeah that LAX film was total AiRpLaNe PrOn. What I want to know is what became of the underground walkways that went out to those island terminals?
Doug – Those are still there. Most of the terminals still have the ability to walk downstairs to baggage claim from the rotunda area, and then you walk out from there. I think T3 is probably the one that’s best preserved since, well, not much has happened to that terminal.
Yeah, and it still looks like it did in Airplane!
One of my favorite pieces of Airplane! trivia is that the producers of the film hired the same people who did the LAX public address announcements in that era to do the public address announcements for their film.
I understand the economics, but I agree about the 5-across seating. It is so nice to have a flight on a MD just to not have to worry as much about the middle seat. Same even on some of the 4-across RJs.
because back then… flying was special (and expensive)
I wonder how many parts are still original (vs replacements)
We also crash our cars more often :)
Nothing beats the upbeat 1960’s industrial film music. Narrator has a great voice too!
Love it.
There’s an episode from the first season of Columbo, early 1970s, that includes an aerial of LAX — there’s almost nothing there.